Wrestling Observer Flashback–05.20.91

Previously on the Flashback.. http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/12/14/wrestling-observer-flashback-05-18-91/

Last week wasn’t very meme-worthy, so let’s see if our luck is better this time. Maybe Kerry Von Erich will say something stupid!

– In the top story, Sports Illustrated had a story on the WWF in March, and no one in mainstream media really gave a shit. Basically Vince sent his PR people to the magazine to produce what Phil Mushnick of the New York Post (no relation to Sam or Irv, Dave notes, although we’ll get to know Phil very well in later years) called a “six page puff piece”. Really it’s a lesson about how low on the food chain that pro wrestling really is, where they can hide all the dirty secrets like steroids very easily because no one ever investigates them.

– Speaking of which, there was also a piece in Spy Magazine by Irv Muchnick about the “war” between Vince and the Weiders, although Dave read the original manuscript of the article and it was a lot more critical of the idea that bodybuilding is viewed as “healthy” when these guys pump themselves full of chemicals, and that Vince is a steroid pusher masquerading as someone concerned about the well-being of his employees. The original manuscript (not the piece that actually ran) attempted to paint the Weiders as “another Verne Gagne waiting to happen”, with Vince ready to swoop in and change the rules of the game while the hapless old guard runs around runs around desperately trying to form a plan. Thankfully, Dave points out here, before the WBF was even established, that Vince’s attempts at ventures outside of wrestling have rarely succeeded, and the bodybuilding one doesn’t look to change that track record. (Yeah, Irv was kind of lucky that the article was edited down as much as it was, because putting out a major article about how the WBF is going to destroy the Weiders would have looked incredibly foolish even a year later.)

– Speaking of incredibly foolish and idiotic promoters, Herb Abrams is actually going to proceed with his idea of running a PPV on 6/9. This is a thing that is actually going to occur. At least Verne Gagne had ESPN to promote his failed PPV, and syndication for both his own show and USWA. Herb has basically nothing. The show is going to be in the 3500 seat Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, FL, and will be “Brawl at the Beach” with Dr. Death v. Bam Bam Bigelow on top. Also, Bob Backlund has indeed been persuaded to come out of retirement and face Ivan Koloff. Tickets for the show are $50 each, so either they’re gonna have to give out a ton of freebies or it’ll be held in an empty arena.

– Superbrawl is this weekend, and Flair v. Fujinami is a tough sell to say the least. Really the only match on the show with any emotional attachment for the audience is Barry Windham v. Brian Pillman, and that’ll be buried in the midcard anyway. WCW didn’t even TRY to promote the Fujinami challenger angle and just showed the controversy from the Tokyo Dome, like that was sufficient to get people to buy it. They’re basically sacrificing a PPV (and not only that, but Flair’s last PPV for two years as it turned out!) in order to suck up to New Japan. Also, the Steiners are becoming a major issue in that fans don’t buy ANYONE as capable of beating them (Given they ran through the entire division and won both the US, World and IWGP tag titles AT THE SAME TIME, that’s not shocking!) it’s hard to predict if anyone will care about the match. It could be a circus overall.

– Wrestlemania is booked for the Hoosierdome in Indianapolis, in case anyone is making plans for next year.

– To Japan, where Takada’s new group UWFi debuted to a sellout at Korakuen Hall, and it wasn’t a very good show but the crowd liked it. The rules were confusing, with a wacky points system where you start with 15 and lost points every time something happens to you, plus they had tag team “shoot” matches, which is just weird. Takada admitted afterwards that they’re just kind of making it up as they go.

– Dave finally did see the Tenta-Kitao shoot, and he actually thinks that Tenta “started it”. Basically Tenta took him down first with a throw and rode him against his will, and when Kitao started working for an armbar, Tenta basically ignored him. Dave’s interpretation is that Kitao was going for a shoot armbar and Tenta wasn’t about to put himself in that position, and then at that point they both realized that it was going to turn into an actual fight and both guys just stared each other down for about 4:00, unsure of how to proceed, until Kitao just kicked the ref for the DQ. So perhaps Kitao WASN’T lying about Kabuki egging Tenta on.

– Akira Maeda’s RINGS promotion debuted to 11,000 at the Yokohama Arena, which is damn good. The matches were all worked, but the crowd bought them as “shoots”. Unfortunately none of the guys working in the front office have any pro wrestling experience, so it’s a challenge for Maeda to do a worked promotion with a bunch of legit fighting guys running things.

– FMW is actually becoming so successful that it might kill Onita’s drawing power, since his whole gimmick is that he’s the poor guy working man who struggles to keep his little promotion alive. And now his shows are drawing big money and he’s showing up looking like Ric Flair in big limos, which might hurt his underground badass image.

– The actual paid attendance for the WWF/SWS show at the Tokyo Dome continues to creep downward, as it has now come out that there was under 20,000 paid in the building, with 30,000 free tickets given out and an announced number of 64,000. Vince McMahon Math! (Oh, while we’re all here, have we talked about the Wrestlemania Dallas fake number yet? Turns out from the numbers given to investors long after the fact, that there was nowhere near 101,000 people in the stadium this year, and in fact the actual paid attendance was somewhere around 76,000 – 80,000, or nowhere near the record. As Vince always says, the “record” was merely part of the entertainment portion of the program. Still impressive, but that’s a BIG chunk of people to fabricate.)

– Back to the US, as the USWA title change situation continues to be ridiculous. Now they’re overturning Lawler’s Texas title victory over Eric Embry because of whatever, and Embry’s win for the Southern title over Jeff Jarrett is being recognized in Memphis, but in Memphis they’re giving a totally different date for the title change for some reason. The short version is that Embry now holds both Texas and Southern titles in both versions of the territory, but the way he got there is different in both cases.

– Tom Pritchard got the line of the week when he while making fun of Little Tokyo, as he claimed to himself be a former World Midget champion, and remembered back when he won the belt from Bill Dundee.

– As expected after last week, say goodbye to Gary Hart’s TWF, as the promotion officially folded this week and was replaced on TV by the LPWA.

– ESPN is really putting the screws to the USWA over the quality of the shows. They actually have a clause in the contract that they can opt out after 28 weeks, and given the generally crappy nature of the shows that’s exactly what could happen soon. (That is in fact what happened, with GWF eventually getting that slot instead.)

– Frankie Williams, who was involved in the famous angle with Roddy Piper years ago, died from lung cancer. (Also, because I haven’t mentioned it anywhere else, RIP Alan Thicke. And then not only that, but after he dies he shows up on episodes of both Fuller House and Scream Queens on Netflix in the same day! His appearance on Fuller House was actually a highlight of that awful, awful show, which just made me sadder. But then he was hilarious as Chad Radwell’s dad on Scream Queens and I felt better about it.)

– Herb Abrams taped TV in New York, setting up a five hour TV taping, but the building kicked him out after three.

– Cactus Jack and Paul Orndorff both told Herb before the show they were booked with Joel Goodhart in Philly later that night, so they needed to be done early in the first hour so they could get going on time. Herb told them to show up at 7:00, and then the show didn’t actually start until an hour later and they both left early, rightly pissed off.

– Also on the show, Steve Williams worked a bizarre match with Stevie Ray (the white one, not Harlem Heat Stevie) where it apparently turned into a shoot, with Williams just busting him up and throwing him into the ring steps violently, busting him open hardway. Ray actually was so pissed about the situation that he took a swing at Abrams at ringside on the way back to the dressing room. (Backstory on that one coming next week, I believe. It’s pretty juicy.)

– Rick Rude supposedly has a release from his WWF contract that allows him to work anywhere he wants, as long as it’s not WCW. If that’s the case, notes Dave, then Jim Herd shouldn’t just be letting Sid out of his contract without the same clause. Also, he’s pretty sure that wouldn’t hold up in court. (And yet, no one ever tested it until Brock Lesnar successfully gave Vince the legal middle finger in 2005 and got out of his.)

– Joel Goodhart is running shows that are starting to become very similar to what we would recognize as early ECW, using guys like Johnny Hot Body, Tony Stetson, the Sandman, DC Drake and JT Smith as regulars.

– To the WWF, where Steve Keirn is rumored to be coming in as “The Gator”. (Good thing we didn’t get THAT stupid gimmick!)

– The Trooper was very impressive last week and might be coming in as a result. (He didn’t. Which is weird, you’d think someone like Wilkes would have been a shoo-in.)

– Tito Santana will have some sort of new gimmick when he returns.

– Paul Orndorff wants to manage Sid Vicious.

– The Warrior v. Undertaker feud continues to draw freakishly large crowds.

– OK, to WCW now, with LOTS of new faces at the TV tapings.

– Dusty Rhodes debuted a new talk segment with himself, which replaces the Danger Zone. As Dave notes, Dusty might not boost houses or TV ratings or PPV buyrates, but he damn sure knows how to get Dusty Rhodes over.

– The Diamond Studd debuted and looked better than Scott Hall, at least.

– PN News debuted on Dusty’s segment and they ended up rapping and dancing together. (Of course they did.)

– Johnny B. Badd (who is “Mark Merro, a muscular jobber” according to Dave) also debuted, doing a gay act.

– Steve Austin, managed by “Vivacious Veronica” also debuted as Stunning Steve. (Even though Lady Blossom was no prize manager, she was still 100x better than Veronica, at least in terms of presence alone.)

– Black Blood, from “France”, debuted, but yelled perfect English at the camera. (Hey, maybe he’s French-Canadian and thus bilingual. Also, I’m pretty sure there’s English-speaking people in France. What about the Pink Panther movies? I rest my case.)

– Latest odds are that Sid Vicious will actually show up to the PPV.

– And finally, the weekend ratings for TBS may have been the lowest in the history of the channel for WCW, as the main show did a 2.0 and the others did far worse. (By way of comparison, RAW does even less than that these days, although it’s nowhere near a fair comparison. But still, yikes.)